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Sir David Attenborough has long been one of the country's favourite broadcasters

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In the end bureaucracy defeated us - and we weren't given the permit to export those dragons from Indonesia

David Attenborough

"So I'm afraid they're still there," he explained. "That was the end of our Zoo Quest."

Speaking to Radio Times this week, David spoke about a time when he feared for his life after returning from an early trip.

“I remember coming home after we’d been away for three and a half months, living a lot of the time in longhouses with the local people in the middle of Borneo, and it was a long journey back with lots of changes in Singapore and places like that,” he recalled.

“My wife met me at the airport and we drove home, and had something to eat and I just fell into bed – I was absolutely out on my feet.

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The Kimodo dragon was not brought back to the UK

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He is just as popular today

“And I woke up at about 2am, dripping with sweat – it was pouring off me – and I thought, ‘This is it. This is malaria, this is a malarial fever. You’re in big trouble.’”

He added: “So I lay in bed, my dear wife sleeping happily away. Do I wake her and say, ‘Honey, I’ve got malaria’?”

However, a reasonable explanation soon presented itself. “So I struggled with this problem and put my hand down on the sheet, and it was red hot,” he continued.

“I suddenly realised that while I’d been away she’d bought an electric blanket! She had turned off her side, but I didn’t know about it!”